Nelson, a former professional bantamweight Canadian champion, is more nervous than usual, because she hasn’t fought in three years. She survived a bout with cervical cancer. Then the cancer came back, spread further, into her bladder. She battled that, too, and now it’s in remission.

She says the doctor once told her to forget the idea of boxing again. But here she is, in the gym on a Wednesday night, big fight looming.

“I always figured I’d be back,” Nelson says. “I didn’t want to quit boxing because of cancer. If I ever quit boxing, it’s because I want to retire; not because of cancer. I wanted to come back and have more fights.”

John Devison, who first fought in a ring at age 12 and is now 81, has coached Nelson since she was 16 years old. He ponders a question, chews it over.

“What makes her special? Her heart,” he says, and Devison means it.

He’s watched Nelson rebound from the radiation, the sickness, the fear and the worry, and get her body tuned for a fight she’s wanted for three long years.

He admits that he, too, never thought she’d fight again.

“A lot of people would say she shouldn’t be in the ring,” Devison remarks. “ But you’ve got to think about what she wants to do. It’s her life; she badly wants to box, and she wants to get that championship back. Physically, she’s come a long way. The doctors say it’s in remission, and she wants to box.”

Nelson’s in great shape, Devison says. She’s worked hard — really hard — to get back in fighting trim.

“I have to train differently,” Nelson says. “I have to allow myself recovery time, and rest lots. I still have a lot of side effects, but I work through them. I feel 100 per cent ready to go in this fight. Health-wise, my doctors say I’m totally good to go.

“It’s what I do. I love it. It’s like anyone, whatever career path they take … there’s a time to go back to work.”

A comeback was always in the back of Nelson’s mind, even as her cancer fights stacked up, one on top of the other. She spent a few months away from boxing clubs; didn’t even watch the sport — it was “different,” she says, “and it was hard.

“It’s a hard sport to leave. That rush of adrenaline you get, when you get in the ring to compete, nothing compares to it.”

Nelson, who ran her own gym and coached up-and-coming fighters until the cancer grabbed a foothold, says parallels can be drawn between boxing and what she just went through.

“In a fight,” she says, “if you ever let your mind take over and think ‘I can’t beat this girl,’ you aren’t going to beat that girl. If you tell yourself they’re stronger, they are going to be stronger. I found that, even with my cancer fight. Not for one minute did I think I was going to let it win. My fighting has helped me with a lot of aspects of my life, but definitely with the cancer fight, too.”

Fellow boxers, she says, understand the draw of the ring and why she’s back. A lot of other people don’t.

“There’s family saying, ‘You shouldn’t be boxing!’ People who don’t box, I think, are more the ones who don’t understand. They say you’ve had a long career …

“But boxing keeps me healthy. It’s a positive influence in my life.”

Nelson, who spent time on Canada’s national team as an amateur, laughs.

“Even my mom says, ‘You don’t need to keep fighting.’ ”

But Nelson figures she has more bouts in her future. At some point, she’d even like another stab at the Canadian title she once held.

But first, there’s this fighter she has to deal with — Essensa, a left-hander from Red Deer. Their scrap is one of seven on a Saturday-night pro boxing card called the At Last Boxing Championship Part II.

Two Saskatoon fighters, Gary Kopas and Paul Bzdel, will fight for separate Canadian Professional Boxing Council titles during the card, which starts at 7 p.m. at Prairieland Park.

And Nelson? She’ll test her body, and her mettle, one more time on the canvas floor.

“(Essensa is) a tricky, frustrating kind of fighter,” Nelson says. “I have a couple friends who have fought her. She’s definitely beatable, but I’m going to have to bring my A game. She doesn’t back down.”

Neither does Nelson, as we’ve seen.

“I figure if I can beat cancer twice,” she says, “this opponent shouldn’t be too bad.”

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